Steve Martin knows that better than anyone that hosting isn’t for the faint of heart, so he’s cutting Jo Koy some slack after the 2024 Golden Globes.
“I tip my hat to anyone who steps out on stage to host a live awards show,” Martin, 78, wrote via Threads on Tuesday, January 9. “It’s a very difficult job and not for the squeamish. I know because I’m still throwing up from the last time I did it in 2010.”
The Only Murders in the Building star added: “So, Congratulations to Jo Koy, who took on the toughest gig in show business, hit, missed, was light on his feet, and now has twenty minutes of new material for his stand up!”
Martin hosted the Academy Awards solo in both 2001 and 2003. He returned in 2010 to cohost the Oscars with Alec Baldwin. Koy, meanwhile, made his hosting debut on Sunday, January 7, with the 81st annual Golden Globes.
Many of his opening monologue jokes fell flat, which Koy, 52, quickly addressed. “I got the gig 10 days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up,” he told the crowd. “I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”
Koy left guests and viewers at home speechless when he poked fun at Barbie and seemed to completely miss the movie’s empowering message of female progression. “Oppenheimer is based on a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project, and Barbie is based on a plastic doll with big boobies,” the comedian said.
Barbie director Greta Gerwig addressed the awkward joke during an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Today, saying, “Well, he’s not wrong. She’s the first doll that was mass-produced with breasts, so he was right on. And you know, I think that so much of the project of the movie was unlikely because it is about a plastic doll.”
During the awards show, Koy also made a dig at Taylor Swift, who lost to Barbie in the Cinematic Box Office Achievement category for her Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour film.
“The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift. I swear,” Koy said as the camera switched to Swift, 34, who has been continuously highlighted during Kansas City Chiefs games while cheering on boyfriend Travis Kelce. “There’s just more to go to.”
Swift was caught making an unamused face in the crowd before sipping her drink. Although Swift has yet to publicly address her now-viral reaction, Koy has spoken out about his joke. “It was a compliment,” Koy told Extra after the awards show, noting that he meant Swift “could be more intimate tonight, that’s all.”
During an appearance on GMA3: What You Need to Know on Monday, January 8, Koy confessed that he did feel bad about his Swift jab. “It was a weird joke, I guess,” he said.
Koy received mixed reviews for his time on stage, but some actors, especially those who’ve hosted awards shows, came to his defense. “These hosting gigs are brutal,” Whoopi Goldberg told her fellow The View cohosts on Monday. “They’re just brutal. If you don’t know the room, if you’ve not been in these rooms before and you’re thrust out there, it’s hit or miss.”
Goldberg, who has hosted the Oscars four times, confessed: “I don’t know whether it was the room or the jokes, I didn’t get to see it, but I do know that he’s as good as it gets when it comes to stand-ups. It’s not an easy gig. If you read any of the reviews of some of the gigs that I’ve had, where they just wished me into the cornfields, die on the vine, it’s not an easy gig.”
